A new site, built from published sources. Spotted a mistake? Please tell us
Telugu Historyతెలుగు చరిత్ర

Najib-ullah Khan

Brother of the Nawab Muhammad Ali Walajah and governor of Nellore in the 1750s. In 1753 the adventurer Muhammad Kamal drove him out of Nellore, but he won it back and had Kamal beheaded. In 1757 he refused his brother's demand for an extra payment and rebelled. His garrison beat off the attack of the Nawab's army and an English force under Colonel Forde. He went over to the French, received Bussy at Nellore in 1758 and joined Moracin against Tirupati. When the French siege of Madras failed in 1759, he killed the Frenchmen with him and was confirmed in Nellore for a tribute of 30,000 pagodas. In 1762 an English force under Caillaud took the Nellore fort from him for the Nawab.

Najib-ullah Khan was a brother of the Nawab Muhammad Ali and his governor of Nellore.12 The Nellore manual calls him Nuzibulla, and Orme calls him Nazeabulla.12

An apanage is land given to a ruler’s relative. The Imperial Gazetteer calls Nellore in 1753 “the apanage of Najib-ullah, a brother of the Nawab Muhammad Ali whom English support had placed on the throne”.3 For some years he was the most powerful Muslim chief in the southern Telugu country, playing his brother, the English, the French and the Marathas against one another. See the Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot) and Muhammad Ali Khan Walajah.

Muhammad Kamal, 1753

During the war over Tiruchirappalli (then Trichinopoly), a captain of horse named Muhammad Kamal kept his troops together after Chanda Sahib’s defeat.45 He had served at the siege of Arcot.45 He “succeeded in finding means to surprise the capital of Nellore itself, from which he obliged Nuzibulla, the Governor, to flee to Arcot”.45

A year later Kamal moved on the temple of Tirupati.45 The Nawab had given its festival revenue to the English.45 An English force, joined by “the army of Nuzibulla, the Nawab’s brother”, met him in the plain.45 When a shot killed his elephant, his army fled and he was taken.45 “He was carried before Nuzibulla, and by his order eventually beheaded (1753 A.D.).”45 See Nellore and Tirupati.

The rebellion of 1757

Orme says that at the beginning of 1757 the Nawab “had demanded of his brother Nazeabulla, the governor of Nelore, a subsidy of 100,000 rupees above the usual tribute”.1 The country could afford this because it had suffered little in the wars.1 Najib-ullah made excuses.1

The Nawab’s officer Ikhlas Khan visited him at Nellore under an oath of protection sworn on the Koran.2 On 21 February 1757, as Ikhlas Khan left after dark, his escort was ambushed.2

The Nawab asked the English for help.26 On 1 April a small force under Lieutenant-Colonel Forde set out from Madras, partly by sea to Krishnapatnam.26 It was to join the Nawab’s army of about 10,000 men under his brother Abdul Wahab, and the troops of the poligars (local chiefs) of Venkatagiri and Kalahasti.26

The army camped before Nellore on 27 April.67 The town stood about 500 yards south of the Penner, with mud walls, a stone gateway and a dry ditch.67 Najib-ullah had left with 1,500 horse.67 He left the town to “a resolute officer, with a garrison of 4,000 peons, who were instructed and assisted by 20 Frenchmen sent from Masulipatam”.67

A breach was made, and the officer was called on to surrender.67 He answered “that he could not deliver the fort to any one without a positive order from Nuzibulla, whose salt he eats”.67 The next morning’s attack was beaten off with pikes, stones and arrows from trenches cut behind the breach.67

Forde’s only heavy gun was put out of action.89 He chased Najib-ullah as far as Sangam without success.89 There he heard that Najib-ullah had gone to the French at Kondavid, and Forde was called back to Madras.89 See Kondaveedu.

With the French

In June 1757 Najib-ullah came back from Machilipatnam (then Masulipatam) with eighty French soldiers.8 Once the Nawab’s army and the poligars’ troops had gone home, he raided the poligars’ country.8 He marched on Tirupati to seize the revenue of its festival, until an English force turned him back to Nellore.8

Early in 1758 the Maratha general Balwant Rao appeared before Nellore.1011 He said he had come to stop Najib-ullah from marching on the Nawab with French troops.1011 Najib-ullah “bought him off with a sum adequate to his expectations”.1011 Balwant Rao then wrote to the Nawab, advising the brothers to make peace.1011

On 4 September 1758 the French general Bussy marched south through Ongole.12 He “arrived at Nellore … and was received by Nuzibulla as a friend and ally”.12 Najib-ullah then went with Moracin’s French troops through the Venkatagiri country to Tirupati, and on to Arcot and Pondicherry.12 The Imperial Gazetteer says that with Moracin he “succeeded in taking the place”.13 See Balwant Rao Mendle, Ongole and Srikalahasti.

Submission and fall

The French gave up the siege of Madras in February 1759.12 Najib-ullah then “resolved to declare entirely for the English, and blackened his zeal by putting to death all the French with him, except their officer St. Denys”.12 He offered a tribute of 30,000 pagodas a year if the English would confirm him as governor of Nellore.12 His terms were accepted, “as no revenue except from his good will was to be expected from that part of the country”.12

Later that year the Nizam’s brother Basalat Jang crossed the Krishna.1415 He attacked the fort of Pellur and camped at Sangam, demanding tribute.1415 Najib-ullah kept him off with “magnified reports of the force of his garrison”.1415 Basalat Jang went back to Kadapa (then Cuddapah) when an English force came near.1415

The Imperial Gazetteer says that the Nawab had not forgiven him.1316 Early in 1762 an army under Colonel Caillaud “took the Nellore fort in February, and soon after made over the District to the Nawab”.1316

The Nellore manual has a list of the chief fauzdars (governors) of Nellore.17 It gives “Nuzibulla Khan, Ramana Puntulu” eight years, and later, with others, a second spell of four years.17 The Imperial Gazetteer gives his garrison of 1757 as 3,000 men, but the Nellore manual gives 4,000 peons.186

Footnotes

  1. Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, Vol. II (Madras reprint, 1861), p. 202 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  2. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District (1873), p. 451 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  3. Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 366 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

  4. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 449 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  5. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 450 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  6. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 452 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11

  7. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 453 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  8. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 454 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  9. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 206 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  10. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 455 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  11. Orme, Military Transactions, Vol. II (1861), p. 292 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  12. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 456 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  13. Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 344 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  14. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 457 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  15. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 458 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 345 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  17. Boswell, Nellore District (1873), p. 473 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩ ↩2

  18. Imperial Gazetteer: Madras, Vol. I (1908), p. 367 (archive.org (opens in a new tab)). ↩

Dynasties

Nawabs of the Carnatic (Arcot)

c. 1710–1801 CE

The Mughal and then Asaf Jahi governors of the Carnatic below the Ghats, the coast from Guntur to the Coleroon, who ruled from Arcot from about 1710 until 1801. Their Telugu districts were Nellore, Ongole and the Palnad, with the jagir of Udayagiri and the tributary poligars of Venkatagiri and Kalahasti. The first house, the Navayats of Saadatullah Khan, gave way in 1744 to Anwar-ud-din Khan, who was killed at Ambur in 1749. His son Muhammad Ali Walajah won the Nawabship with English help against Chanda Sahib and the French, while his brother Najib-ullah held Nellore and rebelled. Deep in debt to the East India Company and to private lenders, Muhammad Ali assigned his revenues to the Company in 1781. The Company managed the country in 1790–92, and in 1792 he bound himself to pay for its troops. After a secret correspondence with Tipu Sultan came to light, Azim-ud-daula handed over the government of the Carnatic in 1801, and Nellore and Ongole became a British district.

References

Sources (3)
  1. John A. C. Boswell, A Manual of the Nellore District in the Presidency of Madras (opens in a new tab), Government of Madras, 1873, pp. 449–458, 473. [Public domain]
  2. Robert Orme, A History of the Military Transactions of the British Nation in Indostan, Vol. II (Madras reprint) (opens in a new tab), Pharoah and Co., Madras, 1861, pp. 202, 206, 292. [Public domain]
  3. Government of India, Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series: Madras, Vol. I (opens in a new tab), Superintendent of Government Printing, Calcutta, 1908, pp. 344–345, 366–367. [Public domain]

Spotted an error on this page? Tell us

Last updated: